Local legislators spearheaded tax plan

By WILL STEWART / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

COOPER

While he’s not pleased with his compromise plan to balance the budget, state Sen. Jerry Cooper says when faced with total state government shutdown, his plan was the only viable alternative.

“I couldn’t accept a total shutdown – and that’s what would have happened,” said Cooper. “Is the compromise a good tax policy? No. It makes the poor pay more and the upper class not pay their fair share.”

Cooper’s plan was passed by the General Assembly in special session late Wednesday evening. Highlights of the plan include raising the state sales tax from 6 to 7 percent, except on grocery items which will remain at 6 percent. Other provisions include increasing the so-called “sin taxes” on alcohol and cigarettes, increasing business excise taxes by half a percent, doubling the professional privilege tax from $200 to $400, raising car registration fees by $10 and imposing a sales tax on vending machine sales and amusement machines.

“I do not think this is a good bill but it’s the only bill that could be passed without shutting down the state completely or taking state-shared revenues from local governments which would have resulted in the doubling or tripling of property taxes,” said Cooper.

The plan will raise an estimated $933 million thus balancing the budget and allowing $25 million more to be put into the state’s Rainy Day Fund.

State Rep. Charles Curtiss, who carried Cooper’s plan to the House, said he too was not excited. “No one is particularly happy about what was passed, but in politics no one ever gets exactly what they want,” Curtiss said. “When people on both sides are upset it’s probably a good piece of legislation.”

However, he said, the solution passed by the legislature is only a temporary one. “It’s good for maybe two years, three at best. I can’t imagine it getting us any further than that,” he said. “But no matter what revenue source you’ve got it won’t sustain you if it’s not managed properly.”

He added the focus on the next session of the General Assembly will be on streamlining state government and making it more efficient.

Cooper said he will see to it the budget and tax issues are brought up every year on a consistent basis and added he will work toward what he thinks is the best long-term solution for the state’s budget problems: lowering the sales tax and instituting a small, flat-rate income tax.

“A combination of both is what we really need,” Cooper said. “When the economy’s good the sales tax can carry the burden. When it’s not, some type of small income tax can pick up the slack.”